The Facts About Keratin Hair Treatments

Read these expert opinions and reader reviews before deciding if a keratin hair treatment is right for you

Your Questions Answered: No. 1: What is a keratin hair treatment? Also known as Brazilian hair treatments, keratin hair treatments are a semi-permanent, hair-smoothing, curl-softening professional chemical treatment. They make hair straighter, shinier and even healthier. The treatments are usually made up of a chemical like formaldehyde (which creates the long-lasting smoothing effect), conditioners, and some keratin (a protein our hair is made of to add strength).

Comments: Great and useful product information. I have exceptionally curly, damaged and have dandruff hair. To remove that problem I had tried dove dandruff care shampoo and find some good result. But now I have decided to use keratin hair treatments.

I recently had my first keratin treatment done and was informed that I would need to purchase a shampoo and conditioner that is both sulphate free and if possible sodium chloride free. My hairstylist watered the explanation down by telling me these ingredients found in every shampoo and conditioner unless otherwise specified would strip all the precious treatment I just paid for out of my hair. I went to online and did alot of research and spoke to my hairstylist (5th ave salon). I went with the Shielo Hydrate Shampoo and the Shielo Hydrate Conditioner and am pleasantly surprised. Not only is it keeping as much of the treatment in as possible, but it leaves my long, thick, newly straight hair SO SOFT! Especially in combination with the conditioner. It has a subtle, clean smell and feels slightly thick when applying. The $20 price tag is a little harsh in comparison to say a drugstore shampoo, but it definitely shows a difference than those products.

I highly recommend Brazilian Silk. First of all this company has ALWAYS been up front with it's ingredient. And YES it does contain a very small amount of formaldehyde. However, the amount is way below the safety standards set by OSHA. As long as you use a fan and have a window cracked you are fine. The results from Brazilian Silk are like no other. You hair literally feels like silk. The only reason you should be wary of using this product is if your hair is extremely damaged. There is nothing in this product that will damage your hair BUT your hair needs to be able to withstand a flat iron at a high heat. The other great thing about BS is that you can control the amount of volume you leave in the hair and the amount of curl you leave in the hair. If you want to leave your curls and just smooth your frizz then you flat iron base to ends. If you want to elimate as much curl as possible you use a "stepping" motion when flat ironing. Do NOT get this product mixed up with Brazialian Bloxout. Brazilian Blowout has something like 3+ times the amount of formaldehyde that OSHA considers safe. OSHA considers anything 2 ppm and below safe to use. Brazialian Silk contains .42 ppm.

I have extremly curly hair, and i just did the Keratin today, i didnt find the smell strong what so ever, and i always have my hair up ], i think the Keratin i just did will help finally leave my hair loose. im still getting use to the long straight hair now. I hope it works and i have really thin hair, and alot of hair as well. The process took a good amount of timee and i have great results!!! :D

I'm looking forward to trying out one called Cocoa Keratin Smoothing treatment. From what I've read it has no silicone, sulfates or parabens and it's much gentler on all hair types, plus it comes with its own pre and post treatment shampoos and conditioner.

Please listen to me...do not do this to your hair. I did it twice and loved my long straight thick hair. But a month after the second treatment I got a bad sore throat and bloody nose. I made an appointment with my doctor and was crying cause my throat was burning so bad. She tested me for strep which I did not have so she couldn't give me anything to treat my sore throat. 3 days later I went to urgent care. I was given a numbing medicine cause my throat hurt so bad I could not swallow and I still had blood coming from my nose. They gave me cough syrup with codeine, the codeine would help with the pain. The sore throat lasted for 7 weeks. I still have the after effects of that sore throat. And to top it all off my hair fell out by the hand fulls. How heart breaking to lose my hair like that. It has finally stopped falling out, but i now have thin hair and it took weeks of looking for all kinds of vitamins and trips to the herb shop and experiments with herbs to find out what would work best to help me keep what hair I had left. I finally have healthy looking hair again and as much as i loved the way my hair looked after the blow out, I would never ever in this world have that treatment done again EVER!!. I got a ton of compliments on how beautiful my hair looked, but still...NO! I have lost a lot of weight from the stress and from worrying about throat cancer. Please it is not worth the worry or stress. I would give anything if I had never ever done this.